The world seems to be sitting on its hands as the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar descends into what the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has described as "a textbook example of ethnic cleansing".

In just three weeks, more than 380,000 ethnic Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh.

On August 25, an armed Rohingya group attacked a string of police posts and a military base in northern Rakhine State, killing a dozen security officers. In response, Burmese security forces unleashed a devastating campaign of killing, forced expulsions and burning of entire villages.

Momena, 32, described her flight from the village of Kirgari Para on August 26 when soldiers approached.

"I fled with the other villagers and we sheltered in the jungle overnight. When I returned to the village the next morning, after the soldiers had left, I saw about 40 to 50 villagers dead, including some children and some elderly," she said.

"All had knife wounds or bullet wounds — some had both."

Momena made it safely to Bangladesh with two of her children, but said she had to leave her husband and 10-year-old son behind. She has had no news of them since.

Rohingya in Myanmar have faced decades of discrimination and persecution, at times evolving into full-scale violence.

It is unsurprising that some among the million or so Rohingya have taken to violence against the Myanmar government. The Myanmar authorities see the Rohingya as unwelcome Muslim immigrants from Bangladesh, denying them access to citizenship and equality before the law even though most Rohingya families have lived in Myanmar for generations.

This is not the first time Rohingya have fled for their lives from Burmese security forces — Human Rights Watch found crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing during anti-Rohingya attacks in 2012. The issue is how to stop the abuses, prevent their recurrence, and assure that the displaced people can safely return.

Australia should step up

Why should Australia care? After all, there are crises aplenty around the world. Why is this one more significant and worthy of our attention?

Firstly, Myanmar is a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN. ASEAN could play a valuable role in speaking out on the human rights crisis in Myanmar, but the crisis could also increase tensions between predominantly Muslim countries like Indonesia, Malaysia and mostly Buddhist Myanmar.

ASEAN played an important role as an interface between Myanmar and the international community during the humanitarian response to Cyclone Nargis, which destroyed much of the Irrawaddy Delta in 2008.

ASEAN countries have a stake in this outcome because whenever Rohingyas must flee violence, they invariably end up on the beaches of Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and occasionally Australia. Australia can help ASEAN overcome a lack of resolve and unanimity to act quickly and decisively.

Secondly, several hundred thousand new Rohingya arrivals in Bangladesh have joined a population of at least 400,000 Rohingya who live in squalid camps in Cox's Bazaar, along the border.

If they can't return home safely and they can't remain in Bangladesh, then many may take to boats, generating a fresh wave of people seeking asylum across the region, including in Australia.

Then there is the growing concern about the spread of Islamist extremism in south-east Asia. A protracted humanitarian crisis in Bangladesh has the potential to be a fertile recruiting ground for militants, and this is not in the interest of Myanmar, Bangladesh, ASEAN or Australia.

Also, Australia is seeking a seat on the UN Human Rights Council. One way to burnish its credentials is to show human rights leadership on a crisis that has the potential to destabilise the region.

The world seems to be sitting on its hands as the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar descends into what the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has described as "a textbook example of ethnic cleansing".

In just three weeks, more than 380,000 ethnic Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh.

On August 25, an armed Rohingya group attacked a string of police posts and a military base in northern Rakhine State, killing a dozen security officers. In response, Burmese security forces unleashed a devastating campaign of killing, forced expulsions and burning of entire villages.

Momena, 32, described her flight from the village of Kirgari Para on August 26 when soldiers approached.

"I fled with the other villagers and we sheltered in the jungle overnight. When I returned to the village the next morning, after the soldiers had left, I saw about 40 to 50 villagers dead, including some children and some elderly," she said.

"All had knife wounds or bullet wounds — some had both."

Momena made it safely to Bangladesh with two of her children, but said she had to leave her husband and 10-year-old son behind. She has had no news of them since.

Rohingya in Myanmar have faced decades of discrimination and persecution, at times evolving into full-scale violence.

It is unsurprising that some among the million or so Rohingya have taken to violence against the Myanmar government. The Myanmar authorities see the Rohingya as unwelcome Muslim immigrants from Bangladesh, denying them access to citizenship and equality before the law even though most Rohingya families have lived in Myanmar for generations.

This is not the first time Rohingya have fled for their lives from Burmese security forces — Human Rights Watch found crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing during anti-Rohingya attacks in 2012. The issue is how to stop the abuses, prevent their recurrence, and assure that the displaced people can safely return.

Australia should step up

Why should Australia care? After all, there are crises aplenty around the world. Why is this one more significant and worthy of our attention?

Firstly, Myanmar is a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN. ASEAN could play a valuable role in speaking out on the human rights crisis in Myanmar, but the crisis could also increase tensions between predominantly Muslim countries like Indonesia, Malaysia and mostly Buddhist Myanmar.

ASEAN played an important role as an interface between Myanmar and the international community during the humanitarian response to Cyclone Nargis, which destroyed much of the Irrawaddy Delta in 2008.

ASEAN countries have a stake in this outcome because whenever Rohingyas must flee violence, they invariably end up on the beaches of Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and occasionally Australia. Australia can help ASEAN overcome a lack of resolve and unanimity to act quickly and decisively.

Secondly, several hundred thousand new Rohingya arrivals in Bangladesh have joined a population of at least 400,000 Rohingya who live in squalid camps in Cox's Bazaar, along the border.

If they can't return home safely and they can't remain in Bangladesh, then many may take to boats, generating a fresh wave of people seeking asylum across the region, including in Australia.

Then there is the growing concern about the spread of Islamist extremism in south-east Asia. A protracted humanitarian crisis in Bangladesh has the potential to be a fertile recruiting ground for militants, and this is not in the interest of Myanmar, Bangladesh, ASEAN or Australia.

Also, Australia is seeking a seat on the UN Human Rights Council. One way to burnish its credentials is to show human rights leadership on a crisis that has the potential to destabilise the region.

Australia is promising thousands of dollars to Rohingya refugees who agree to return to Myanmar, a country that has been accused of ethnic cleansing against the Muslim minority.

Asylum seekers in the Australian-run detention centre on Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island, have been pressured by officials to return to their home countries, even if they face violence.

Papua New Guinea’s supreme court last year ruled the centre for around 800 people breached human rights, was illegal and must close. Australia has since ratcheted up efforts to clear the centre, offering up to A$25,000 to refugees agreeing to go home.

Returning Rohingya to their country could put their lives at risk. Myanmar does not recognise the ethnic minority and has conducted military operations in Rohingya villages that the United Nations’ top human rights official branded “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing”.

...

Yahya Tabani, a 32-year-old Rohingya man who arrived in Australia in 2013 but was sent to Manus Island, said he had no choice but to return.

“I don’t want to stay in PNG,” said Tabani, who used to sell mobile accessories. “I don’t want to die in PNG. I prefer to die in Myanmar. Probably Buddhist people are going to kill me as soon as I arrive in Myanmar … Australia doesn’t care if we live or we die.”

...

More at link.

__________________
"Just stick to the idea that science is just about making descriptive models of natural phenomena, whose emergent predictions are tested to destruction" - Woof!
"Science is what we have learned about how to keep from fooling ourselves" - Richard Feynman

Why should Australia care? After all, there are crises aplenty around the world. Why is this one more significant and worthy of our attention?

Firstly, Myanmar is a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN. ASEAN could play a valuable role in speaking out on the human rights crisis in Myanmar, but the crisis could also increase tensions between predominantly Muslim countries like Indonesia, Malaysia and mostly Buddhist Myanmar.

ASEAN played an important role as an interface between Myanmar and the international community during the humanitarian response to Cyclone Nargis, which destroyed much of the Irrawaddy Delta in 2008.

ASEAN countries have a stake in this outcome because whenever Rohingyas must flee violence, they invariably end up on the beaches of Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and occasionally Australia. Australia can help ASEAN overcome a lack of resolve and unanimity to act quickly and decisively.

Secondly, several hundred thousand new Rohingya arrivals in Bangladesh have joined a population of at least 400,000 Rohingya who live in squalid camps in Cox's Bazaar, along the border.

If they can't return home safely and they can't remain in Bangladesh, then many may take to boats, generating a fresh wave of people seeking asylum across the region, including in Australia.

Then there is the growing concern about the spread of Islamist extremism in south-east Asia. A protracted humanitarian crisis in Bangladesh has the potential to be a fertile recruiting ground for militants, and this is not in the interest of Myanmar, Bangladesh, ASEAN or Australia.

Also, Australia is seeking a seat on the UN Human Rights Council. One way to burnish its credentials is to show human rights leadership on a crisis that has the potential to destabilise the region.

More@source

Australia is so far behind on this it is an outrage. All the government is interested in is "stop the boats". It takes a little more foresight to say stop the killings that are causing people to flee on boats.

__________________
"I'm an ape, I'm an African ape and I'm proud of it, and you should be too". Richard Dawkins

Why should Australia care? After all, there are crises aplenty around the world. Why is this one more significant and worthy of our attention?

Firstly, Myanmar is a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN. ASEAN could play a valuable role in speaking out on the human rights crisis in Myanmar, but the crisis could also increase tensions between predominantly Muslim countries like Indonesia, Malaysia and mostly Buddhist Myanmar.

ASEAN played an important role as an interface between Myanmar and the international community during the humanitarian response to Cyclone Nargis, which destroyed much of the Irrawaddy Delta in 2008.

ASEAN countries have a stake in this outcome because whenever Rohingyas must flee violence, they invariably end up on the beaches of Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and occasionally Australia. Australia can help ASEAN overcome a lack of resolve and unanimity to act quickly and decisively.

Secondly, several hundred thousand new Rohingya arrivals in Bangladesh have joined a population of at least 400,000 Rohingya who live in squalid camps in Cox's Bazaar, along the border.

If they can't return home safely and they can't remain in Bangladesh, then many may take to boats, generating a fresh wave of people seeking asylum across the region, including in Australia.

Then there is the growing concern about the spread of Islamist extremism in south-east Asia. A protracted humanitarian crisis in Bangladesh has the potential to be a fertile recruiting ground for militants, and this is not in the interest of Myanmar, Bangladesh, ASEAN or Australia.

Also, Australia is seeking a seat on the UN Human Rights Council. One way to burnish its credentials is to show human rights leadership on a crisis that has the potential to destabilise the region.

More@source

Australia is so far behind on this it is an outrage. All the government is interested in is "stop the boats". It takes a little more foresight to say stop the killings that are causing people to flee on boats.

Like ASSK, Australia's government employs a strange kind of compassion-talk which ignores, denies, or rebrands a range of abuses and killings.

This "stop the boats" mantra is, in effect, like lifting a person via a tight grip around the throat, at the same time proclaiming proudly that "we're stopping them from treading on broken glass".

New satellite imagery of Myanmar's Rakhine state shows the country's government is using bulldozers to completely flatten dozens of Rohingya Muslim villages that were burned during violence last year.

Human rights groups say authorities are destroying "crime scenes" that contain evidence of atrocities committed by the nation's security forces, who are accused of carrying out massacres and widespread rape.

The operation has horrified the Rohingya, who believe the government is intentionally eviscerating their culture to stop their return.

Satellite imagery from DigitalGlobe indicates at least 28 villages or hamlets were leveled by bulldozers and other machinery in a 30-mile (50-kilometer) radius around Maungdaw between December and February.

A similar analysis by Human Rights Watch on Friday said at least 55 villages have been affected so far.